


Settle into a Gentle Present

by updatebug



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Alchemisty, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Character Study, Daemons, Gen, Hurt and comfort, Meta, Xing, Xing Traditions, Yao Clan, characters to be added as necessary, meta-ish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:47:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21783925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/updatebug/pseuds/updatebug
Summary: "The past is gone, and cannot harm you anymore. And while the future is fast coming for you, it always flinches first and settles in as the gentle present."In one universe there is an Amestris where your soul walks beside you. This does not make things better. A series of oneshots exploring the souls of different characters. How they settled, how they changed and what it meant.
Kudos: 44





	1. Edward and Alessia

Edward’s Daemon settles sometime between his first and second operation.

He needs to be awake. Granny needs to know if the nerves are connecting properly so he needs to be awake. He needs to be awake and Al holds him down with too with cold-metal-too-big hands and Winry’s Caduceus pins Lessi to the ground while she screams. He screams too. And inside a suit of armour Al’s soul quivers against metal.

She changes fast. _Puppy, kitten, owlet cub-pup-fledgling_ _Cria!Shoat!Kid!_ Caduceus matches every-one and smother her as her FeathersFeetPaws scrape against the floor.

“You can’t,” He hisses. “You can’t, Granny says.” 

Jimini, Granny’s bobbled lizard daemon perches on the headboard guiding Winry through her part of the operation with a gravel voice. Lessi keened and slumped against the floor. Caduceus nuzzles against her shoulder and wraps himself around her, feathers melding into red fur as he changes to a fox kit. Lessi has stopped shifting. She will never shift again.

Xxx

_Edward dreams that he stands in a white abyss and Lessi does not stand by his side._

_Edward dreams that his father returned and picked his mother up and healed her and they all lived happily ever after._

_Edward dreams that a woman with a cat for a daemon yells at him but still teaches him and heals him and watches him._

_Edward dreams of a being with no eyes smiles at him with too many teeth and asks for his price._

_Edward dreams of a man with wings and a woman for a shadow sweeping through a doorways and lifting him from a wheelchair to scream in his face._

_Edward dreams that there is blood on the floor and charcoal bitter behind his teeth. He dreams that Lessi trails dust beneath his arm as she helps him drag his way to where Al once stood. He dreams of blood on his hands and cold metal on his skin and painful denial. He dreams of Adara flick-flick-flickering back into form and a red glow behind an empty helmet._

_Edward dreams of a brother that has hands and skin and eyes. Hunger and exhaustion and thirst._

_Edward dream of blonde hair and brown hair and doors that stayed closed._

_Edward dreams –_

Xxx

Edward wakes up and Alessia is curled in a question mark of brown and golden fur against his pillow. She shifts when he opens his eyes and twists to peer up at him, dark brown eyes reflecting the gold of his own.

“Hello,” she says, whiskers twitching.

Edward swallows and raises his hand to touch her. She is still young. She could fit into the palm of his hand and her fur still has the soft baby fuzz of a pup, not the sharp bristles of an adult. He cannot feel it. He is not using his flesh hand. The first touch that Edward ever gives his settles daemon is metal. The only touch he deserves to give her. The only touch Al can give Adara.

“Hello.” He says back. His voice cracks.

Lessi ducks forward and presses a dry nose against his cheek. She is warm.

“If you ever do anything so stupid again, I will make your life not worth living.” Her voice is wet and her tiny body trembles in the crook of his neck.

“Yeah,” Ed rolls his head to stare up at the blank ceiling he clenches his metal fist against the sheets. “You know I can’t keep to that.”

Al still needs his body back. And for that…

“You know what we need to do now.” He says.

“Yeah,” Lessi sniffs, distaste clear in her voice. “The Military.”

xxx

The Meerkat is a child of the desert. Perhaps, if Ed had known about Xerxes this would have meant something to him. Perhaps if he had known more of his father this would have meant something to him too. It certainly would have meant something to Hoenheim.

To the Aestrians who live at the border, Meerkats are nothing more than pests. Rodents of the sand. But once upon a time in Xerxes they were the children of gods. The sons and daughters of the burning sun and desert sands. It is said that they were sent to protect villages from sickness and disease and the shadowed children of the moon.

Perhaps, if the Dwarf in the Flask had known more of humans and less of immortality this would have meant something to him too.

Perhaps...but perhaps not.


	2. Chapter 2

When a prince or princess of the Yao clan settles, they retire to a temple in the heart of the compound and enter a period of reflection and meditation. If their prayers are worthy and their soul just, they will be granted skills greater than that of an ordinary human.

In truth, they and their most trusted retainers travel to the heart of Yao territory, to the Qié mountain.

“Ahhh,” Ling whined, squinting straight upward at the jagged wall of sheer rock that blocked their path. “That is so high. So high.”

“This is it, Young Lord,” Fu said gruffly, pulling the rucksack off his back and crouching down. Bo leapt off and onto the ground, long ears twitching as her dark brown eyes flickered around the clearing. In the sky, Lan Fan’s Léng hovered above the trees the cream of his belly blending into the bright sky and only the patch of red against his throat giving him away. Lan Fan was somewhere in the trees. Ling couldn’t see her, but he could feel the bright spot of her qi against the gentle warmth of the leaves.

“Lan Fan and I will wait for you here. It would be best to wait until morning to begin the climb.”

Ling hummed. On his shoulder Shufen cracked open an eye. Her tail twitched against his chest as she uncurled from his neck to look. She was perfectly still, but her claws dug into his jacket and drew small beads of blood from his skin.

“I’m gonna do it now,” He decided, nodding blithely and grabbing hold of Shufen and puling her off. She didn’t cling but her wide eyes did shoot him a look of abject betrayal as he dropped her onto the mossy floor. Ling was eleven years old. He had been eleven years old for six days. The same number as he’d had a settled daemon.

“Young Lord!” Fu snapped.

“That would be a very bad idea,” Bo agreed, hopping closer on three legs. The fourth was an empty space and a jagged scar where a Han assassin had gotten too close. Ling had been eight. She had gotten between Shufen and the blade.

“Nah, I’m gonna go.” Ling said and then he leapt for the cliff before anyone could stop him.

“Young Lord!”

Ling grunted, clinging to the wall with the very tips of his fingers and toes. He grunt and reached for the next hold. Fu and Lan Fan wouldn’t follow him up the cliff. It was forbidden.

“That was rude.”

Ling twitched and glanced over at Shufen who _had_ followed him up. She was perched on a small outcrop slightly below him, tail stretched straight out for balance and ears pressed flat against her head as she leapt upwards. Even for a cat she was beautiful. The light cream of her fur stood out against the dark rock, all but the dark triangles of her ears and tail and the bright blue of her eyes. Ling swallowed and climbed further.

“That’s rude too.” Shufen said, delicately bopping him the head with her paw as she passed him. “You shouldn’t ignore people who are talking to you.”

Ling ignored her and climbed higher. Sweat trickled down his face and he huffed sharply upwards in an attempt to stop his long fringe from sticking to his face.

“When we are Emperor you should –” Shufen broke off with a gasp, flattened herself against the wall hissing upwards at thin air.

“What is it!” Ling demanded, a frisson of her fear fluttering though him.

“I can’t go any further.” Shufen gasped, huddling down. “I can’t –”

“Ah,” Ling swallowed and glanced down. Fu and Lan Fan were still down there. Waiting. “Okay.”

Then he reached up and climbed past her. It didn’t hurt at first. Not really. Just felt like someone was tugging at his arm a little too hard. Except that the arm was somewhere deep inside his chest. But as he climbed higher…

“Wait, _Wait, wait, wait!_ ” Shufen yelped. Ling risked another glance down. Shufen was staring up at him lunging to follow and falling back with little whimpers as she came across some invisible barrier. “Wait, come back. I changed my mind. Don’t go!”

Ling winced and squeezed his eyes shut, pressing himself closer to the cliff wall. “We promised.” He muttered back reaching for the next hand hold with trembling fingers. “We’re gonna be Emperor.”

Below him Shufen _yowled_ and animal screech of pain and confusion. Ling whimpered, climbing higher. He kept his eyes shut. In the setting sun it was hard to see anyway. He dragged his body further up. It was like he was fighting against gravity. Like he was ripping himself in two. And it hurt. It hurt _it hurt_. He strained against the pain and climbed. He climbed until his fingers were sweaty and slick against the rock and his toes cramped and trembled to keep him upright and the sweat on his face tasted like tears and something inside him went _slack._

“Shufen!” Ling gasped, swaying and almost letting go. He still felt her. But it was different. It didn’t hurt. His eyes cracked open. It was night. He hadn’t seen it fall. The stars were starting to peer through the sky and the air was cool as breath against his skin.

He climbed back down.

Shufen wasn’t waiting.

“Young Lord, welcome back.” Fu said, steeping forward and clasping Ling’s shoulder. His face was as gruff as ever, but Bo was sat at his feet, chest puffed up in pride.

“Well done, My Lord,” Lan Fan smiled from behind him. There was a gap in her smile where she had lost two milk teeth a week earlier and dirt smudged on her cheek from the trees. Ling smiled back and her, eyes creasing closed. Then he opened them and frowned. He could feel her. She just wasn’t _here._

“Where is Shufen?”

Lan Fan’s smile crumpled and her shoulders drooped. Wind brushed against Ling’s face as Léng flew past, gliding down to drop onto Lan Fan’s offered arm.

“She’s gone.” He croaked. “She went back to the compound.”

“Léng.” Lan Fan hissed, face turning crimson.

Léng coughed and shuffled his wings awkwardly. “My lord.” He tacked on before burying his head beneath a wing.

“She said she would see you there.” Fu said. “We will see her in a few days. Lan Fan and I have set up the tent if you wish to sleep, Young Lord. You must be tired.”

Ling let himself be guided into the tent and even into a sleeping bag.

He didn’t sleep though. Just stayed up, staring up against the blank canvas ceiling and feeling the quiet against his chest where the thrum-thrum-thrum of Shufen’s heart usually rested.

He was going to be Emperor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shufen - Balinese Cat   
> Bo - Mountain Hare   
> Léng - Barn Swallow


End file.
